Oldest son, Ryan, went to a Christian camp this weekend, so it's just Taylor, and the four youngest kids home with Mom this weekend. We are all sick except Taylor, so we are just hanging out on the couch. Well, I'm on the couch--the kids seem to have the same level of energy no matter how sick they are.
I watch these little munchkins running around (and Jake cleaning his bowl of applesauce with his face--ugh), and I still can't believe that God has blessed me with them. How did I get to be their Mom? I look into their sparkling eyes and am in awe of where God has brought them...from humble beginnings to citizens of the greatest country on earth. What a picture of what He has done for me...and I get to see it lived out daily in front of my eyes.
The face of innocence...NOT!
Little Jake has become Dennis the Menace--but much cuter of course. :) Oh my goodness...the kid is EVERYTWHERE! Jeff calls him 'Roomba' because he grazes constantly and finds the most miniscule of food particles (and non-food particles) and puts them in his mouth. I find plastic beads in his diaper on a weekly basis. He is learning at a rapid pace and has started to mimic everything we do. He can now, 'pray' at meals, 'talk' on the phone, and 'help' Mommy unload the dishwasher. He also likes to take the trash out...sadly, he takes it out while it's still in the house, in the form of forraging for gum, food, etc. Blech--disgusting! He can do it in the blink of an eye, or when we are still cleaning up his last mess. ha Jordan is Jake's personal police officer and does his best to enforce the house rules. (He is quite often frustrated by the futility of this job--which we tried to relieve him of, to no avail.)
"Yep, I'm still doing this, but I figured how to get myself down so I don't have to yell for Mom."
Molly is having 'sleeping issues,' as she would call it. She has always had trouble with insomnia, and the only solution that has worked is for her to sleep on the floor in our room. (Yes, this DOES mean that I now have at least one child by my side 24/7! ha) When Jeff goes out of town, Molly sleeps in bed with me, and Jillian decided to sleep in Molly's spot on the floor. After several weeks, this evolved into Jillian AND Molly sleeping in our room every night. They quickly moved all their junk into our room, ie: dolls, doll clothes, homemade cardboard doll beds, and other treasures, which littered our room from one end to the other. I expressed my frustration to Jeff over this, to which he replied, "They're squatters. We'll never get them out of there! They've set up residence." I totally cracked up! All of our kids have gone through the "I need to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room" at some point. This too shall pass.
We all have cabin fever which mean a few squabbles have erupted. Lately, SaraGrace has been saying, "Mommy, ______ is being mean to my feelings. Tell her to be nice to my feelings."
"I dressed myself today, can you tell?"
